St. Dominic of Silos was born around the year 1000. He died on December 20, 1073. His Feast day, December 20..
Image located at https://dailydoseofpositiveliving.in/2020/12/20/saint-of-the-day-saint-dominic-of-silos/ used as being in the public domain.
St. Dominic of Silos was born in the year 1000 - about 1023 years ago. He lived exactly one millennia from the current day. I found that to be fascinating. He was born to a peasant shepherding family in Navarre, Spain. He grew ups as a shepherd in the Pyrenees Mountains. He spent his time tending to his father's sheep. Shepherding is a lonely life and he spent a lot of his time by himself, a fact that he became both used to and comfortable with. This led him to enter the Benedictine monastery.
Dominic eventually became the prior of the monastery, but was run out by the king, Garcia III, who demanded the lands owned and occupied by the monastery.
Dominic would flee to another monastery, the monastery of St. Sebastian (which would become the Monastery of Saint Dominic of Silos), under the protection of King Ferdinand I, who was king of Leon. The monastery was in really bad state of decay and was crumbling down. The six monks who were there also seemed to have lost their spiritual way. The Monastery of Saint Sebastian was both physically and spiritually lacking. Dominic came in and took on both of those issues. He did so well at restoring the monastery that it became a center of scholarship and charity to the poor. Dominic also used monastery funds to ransom enslaved captives away from Musilmrs who were trying to invade and take over all of Spain.
Saint Dominic was known for working miracles both before and after his death in 1073. The mother of Dominic de Guzmán went to the shrine of Saint Dominic for a son. When she gave birth to a son, she named him for Dominic. Dominic de Guzmán would go on to found the Dominican Order and is now referred to as Saint Dominic.
Saint Dominic of Silos soon became the patron saint of pregnant mothers. Interestingly, his crozier was always brought to the bedside of Spanish queens who were in labor. He is additionally the patron saint of shepherds and of prisoners.
He was canonized by public acclaim because the Congregation for Causes of Saints had not yet been created.
St. Dominic of Silos, pray for us!
Saint Andrew's Christmas Novena
Hail and blessed be the hour and moment in which the Son of God was born of the most pure Virgin Mary, at midnight, in Bethlehem, in a stable, in the piercing cold. In that hour vouchsafe, we beseech Thee, O my God, to hear our prayers and grant our desires, through the merits of Our Saviour Jesus Christ, and of His blessed Mother. Amen.
(Prayer copied from EWTN)
Join me at 3:30 p.m. Eastern for the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, to leafrn about St. Lucy and to pray the St. Andrew Christmas Novena at: https://www.blogtalkradio.com/the4persons/2023/12/18/divine-mercy-saint-of-the-day-and-daily-update
If you have not watched our Christmas Special, the Case for Christmas, you can find it here:
Here is a link to my interview with Lisa Marie Nicole from Sunday, December 10, 2023. I lovingly refer to Lisa as the Catholic version of Stryper:
If you want to listen top some great interviews, John Benko and I interviewed the original modern-day Catholic Defender, Steve Ray, https://www.blogtalkradio.com/the4persons/2023/12/05/steve-ray-with-john-benko-talking-about-going-to-the-holy-land, and we interviewed acclaimed Catholic musical artist Donna Cori Gibson at https://www.blogtalkradio.com/the4persons/2023/12/05/t4p-welcomes-donna-cori-gibson.
Be sure to check out our friends at https://therockcompanyshop.com/.
